Busting the 10x software engineer myth

Re:Busting the 10x software engineer myth by thinkharderdev on Wednesday September 22, 2021 @09:14AM (#28615905)

Yeah, this is an important point when thinking about it from an organization perspective. I've been at places where they "only wanted to hire rockstars" which was beyond stupid. By definition 10x developers are rare and are going to have a lot of options when it comes to where they work. So if you depend on some member of the team carrying a hugely disproportionate amount of the work, then you are in for a rude awakening when they jump ship.

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Re:Busting the 10x software engineer myth by mmargerum on Wednesday September 22, 2021 @09:22AM (#28615994)

The problem I have is they always want me to train someone as insurance for if I leave. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy when you make me work and train mediocre people. I just want to build great things and be left alone.

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Re:Busting the 10x software engineer myth by samhw on Wednesday September 22, 2021 @10:10AM (#28616495)

This blog post has some really interesting thoughts on that point: https://applieddivinitystudies.com/2020/10/15/bus-factor/

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Re:Busting the 10x software engineer myth by mmargerum on Wednesday September 22, 2021 @10:42AM (#28616859)

Yup. this is my life. I have a dev title but im really directing people. I don't enjoy doing both. May as well get paid accordingly.

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Re:Busting the 10x software engineer myth by samhw on Friday September 24, 2021 @12:10PM (#28644340)

This is something our industry needs to fix. I've turned down promotions so many times because they amounted to moving from coding to pastoral care. Which is bizarre - it's like a surgeon being offered a promotion to work in HR.

Many companies do have an individual contributor track, and that's a big factor in where I choose to work, but way too many companies seem to think it's all kinda the same thing.

(To be clear: none of this is neglecting the importance of, or talent involved in, managing people. Bringing out people's potential requires tremendous skill, which I don't have, and that's why I won't do it.)

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Re:Busting the 10x software engineer myth by fuzzfactor on Thursday September 23, 2021 @12:39AM (#28625261)

If you trained one or more operators who have already left for alternative employment, you could point out that there may now be other orgs making more money from your technology than your own employer is.

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Re:Busting the 10x software engineer myth by fuzzfactor on Thursday September 23, 2021 @12:28AM (#28625221)

>you depend on some member of the team carrying a hugely disproportionate amount of the work

This can be a problem when there is only one high-performer.

You hire all high-performers so this is not what happens.

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